Megilah 23 - 32

Sources for the number of men called to the Torah on regular and special days

Who can be called to the Torah and details about maftir

Things that require a minyan

How many passages must be read and rules about skipping

Why the one called for maftir leads the Mussaf service

Light for the blind and kohanim unfit to bless

Improper attitudes to prayer and to wearing tefillin

Improper prayers and interpretations of Torah

Torah and Prophets readings which are not translated for public

What is done with funds received from selling synagogues and sacred objects

Was Jerusalem divided among the tribes

Taking down one synagogue to build another and selling one Sefer Torah to buy another

Comparative sanctity of a place of learning and a place of prayer

More rules governing sale of a synagogue

Merits that gained long life for a number of Sages

How to relate to a synagogue in ruins

Contrast of Sages in Eretz Yisrael and those in Babylon

Of eulogies, funerals and the Divine Presence with Jews in their exiles

The four special Torah readings in the Purim-Pesach season

The Torah and Haftara readings on holidays and special days

The voice from Heaven

Rules regarding the rolling and lifting of the Sefer Torah and the blessings made by the one called to the Torah

When Torah Study is Put Aside

Megilah 29a

Burying the dead is such an important mitzvah that it, like making a wedding possible, requires one to even put aside his Torah study in order to fulfill it.

This rule, which appears both here and in an earlier part of our mesechta (Megilah 3b), raises a question in regard to the following story related in one of the minor tractates (Mesechta Derech Eretz Zuta, Chapter 8).

Rabbi Akiva once came upon a Jewish corpse in a place where there was no one around to bury it and no place to do so in a nearby cemetery. He therefore carried the body the distance of four mil (approximately four kilometers) to a Jewish cemetery.

When he subsequently related his experience to his teachers, Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Eliezer, they criticized what he assumed was a heroic deed.

On the surface it seems that their criticism was directed at his taking off so much time from his Torah study. But this would be counter to what we quoted above from our gemara.

Tosefot solves the problem by pointing out that although Torah study may be put aside to play a necessary role in the burial of any dead Jew, even when the death took place in a populated area, there is a special rule in regard to a met mitzvah, a corpse found in an unpopulated area. That body need not be transported to a distant cemetery and should be buried where it was found.

Rabbi Akiva was thus not at fault for taking time from his Torah study but for failing to accord that body the honor it deserved of being buried where death had taken place.

What the Sages Say

"The Houses of Prayer and Houses of Torah Study in Babylon (and everywhere else – Maharsha) will eventually be relocated in Eretz Yisrael."

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